What a gorgeous day in Wisconsin. The weather continues to be amazingly comfortable, pleasantly warm and dry in day and cool and sometimes rainy at night. Elias took a blessedly wonderful, long nap today, nearly 4 hours, allowing me to nap a good 3 hours myself, which has done a world of good. That has probably helped me better appreciate some really nice scenes today.
As happens every summer weekend, our nextdoor neighbor trailers out all but one of their horses to play polo. We were just coming out to play when they returned, much to the delight of the huge gelding who stays home. He kept calling out to the polo ponies and ran back and forth in the pasture, kicking up his heels. At first Elias liked seeing him (yelling "neigh! neigh!") but then as the horse's antics got wilder, he got a little scared and wanted to be held. I told him the horse was happy to see his friends again, but Elias just didn't trust the transformation of the big, calm gelding we'd so often visited.
Elias ran to the backyard and started begging me to give him a ride in the wheelbarrow. Then, however, he was distracted by the release and reuniting of all the horses into the adjacent pasture. We went over to watch them run around, then settle down to some eager grazing. I was pleasantly surprised to find some ripe cherries, some of which weren't even bird-pecked. I gave Elias 1/2 of one, and he very generously walked over to the fence and held it out to the horses (who were on the far side of the pasture). I said, no, horses don't eat cherries, they eat grass, so he ate it himself. Then we picked a few raspberries, and went back to watch the horses and sing some songs. Uncharacteristically, he wasn't much into the songs, but kept picking grass and throwing it through the fence for the (still far away) horses. What a genuinely nice kid! He pointed out the black horse, and when I asked, pointed out the 3 white horses. Then he pointed to the big gelding and clearly declared "Happy!"
Next he pointed behind me and said "Verdi! Verdi!"...and sure enough, there was Verdi the rooster coming out to see what we were doing. There's some weird facination between Verdi and Elias--both are mostly afraid of the other, but also can't seem to help themselves from following each other.
Inside, I finally made my first batch of white currant jelly. They look very pretty and sealed, but appear a little loose yet. Only 10,000 to go. At one point I heard Elias exclaiming "mess! mess! mess! mess!" (He'll keep repeating something until I acknowledge it.) So I turned around to see what "mess" in Elias-speak meant--and (I'm going to sound like Pastor Chris here), indeed, it means "mess." New word. He'd gotten into a drawer and fished out a tin of dried apricots, and had them strewn all over the floor, a few of which he'd chewed on a bit.
We read books (of course) and played with alphabet blocks. Elias opened my eyes to the fact that, turned the right way and with the right typescript, an M looks just like a W, or an E, and a Z is sometimes an N. How confusing. He, however, is certain of his identifications, and I have no reason to correct them.
OK, this scene wasn't so idyllic, but it does illustrate my revived mood. At dinner I had a fresh zucchini from the garden, and was happy that Elias wanted several piece fo "zzuk" too. Elias had broccoli soup, zucchini, apple, mac& cheese and hotdogs. He does pretty well with utensils, but always puts such huge portions in at once. Typically, he'll put as much on as his fork can hold, hold it up so I can marvel at it, then giggling, shove it all deep into his mouth, assisted by the free hand to make sure food doesn't escape out the sides and cram it all in there. Each of these steps will usually shed plenty of food to the placemat, himself, and the floor, yet there is well over a reasonably-sized mouthfull left. He often keeps a hand over his mouth to prevent it from coming out when he tries to chew, or even close his mouth. Well, this time there was just too much so he started to gag, concernedly looking to me, yet continuing to hold the food in with the free hand. So, of course, he threw up, as his natural body instincts wisely overcame his unwitting attempt to suffocate himself. More mess. After a quick drink of water, he was back to the business of refilling his tummy. I guess why I'm relating this is that it didn't anger or gross me out in the least. Instead, I just thought of how much I love him and wonder at his inate bodily functions and the learning process in action.
